A former Chicago family law attorney who once wielded outsized influence over Cook County's domestic relations courts was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman he represented as her court-appointed guardian ad litem. David Pasulka, now 67, must also register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
According to CBS News Chicago, Pasulka was convicted of criminal sexual assault in April 2026 after court records showed he repeatedly assaulted a 43-year-old woman between September 2016 and May 2017, while he was 61 and serving as her guardian ad litem in her children's custody dispute. The station reported that Pasulka told the woman he had great influence over family court judges and her case outcome, and allegedly told her to “be smart.”
That assault was only one piece of a sprawling pattern of accusations against Pasulka that stretched back years before his arrest. Court records cited by the station also show he was charged with sexually assaulting a paralegal at his own firm, David P. Pasulka and Associates. Prosecutors said the paralegal reported that Pasulka continuously sexually abused and assaulted her and threatened to destroy her reputation in the legal community by using his position of power, the same report states.
Years of Allegations Before Charges Were Filed
The criminal case traces back to a January 2021 charging document from the Chicago Police Department, which accused Pasulka of sexually assaulting two women. Per the department's own offender-charged notice, Pasulka faced one felony count of aggravated criminal sexual assault, seven felony counts of criminal sexual assault by force, and one felony count of criminal sexual abuse by force. Police identified him as the offender in alleged assaults involving a 31-year-old woman on February 1, 2017, and a 48-year-old woman on May 9, 2017.
Those January 2021 charges followed an earlier arrest. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that in August 2020, Pasulka was charged with sexually attacking a client and two associates at his law firm. A separate Sun-Times report noted that by January 2021, he had been arrested again after two more women came forward. Around the same time, a 31-year-old paralegal alleged, according to the Chicago Tribune, that Pasulka continuously sexually abused and assaulted her and threatened to destroy her reputation in the legal community.
Disciplinary Complaint Accused Him of Trading Custody for Sex
Pasulka's professional unraveling had begun even earlier, through a complaint filed by the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission. The commission accused him of offering to recommend that a parent receive full custody of her children in exchange for sex, and of inappropriately touching her during a 2016 meeting, according to the Chicago Tribune's reporting on the 2020 complaint. The same complaint detailed alleged repeated sexual assaults of several employees at Pasulka & Associates, the Tribune reported, and it sparked outrage within the Cook County Circuit Court's domestic division.
Pasulka denied the allegations at the time, telling the Tribune he felt he was being “dragged through the mud.” Cook County removed him from its list of approved court-appointed child representatives on August 31, 2020, the Tribune reported. He was barred from practicing law that December, pending the ARDC's disciplinary action, and CBS News Chicago has reported that records show the commission first heard allegations against Pasulka back in March 2017 — years before the criminal charges followed.
A Power Broker Stripped of His Influence
For more than 20 years, Pasulka chaired the Cook County committee responsible for selecting child representatives and guardians ad litem — a gatekeeping role that put him in charge of who got appointed to represent children and parents in the county's domestic relations cases. After the ARDC charges became public, Pasulka was suspended from serving as a guardian ad litem in Cook County and removed as chair of that committee; he was ultimately stripped of his Illinois law license in January 2021.
The scope of Pasulka's influence drew sharp criticism from at least one attorney in the local bar. Lawrence Thompson wrote a letter to Cook County Chief Judge Tim Evans and Judge Grace Dickler calling for their resignations, according to the letter cited in reporting. Thompson wrote that Pasulka could blackball opposing attorneys from the approved child representatives and guardians ad litem list, and he described the committee appointment as placing what he called a “bully-pervert” in charge of regulating associates throughout Cook County's domestic relations courts.
Pasulka was sentenced on Wednesday, bringing a case that began with disciplinary complaints years earlier to a close in criminal court. He must register as a sex offender for life.
